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From Library Journal
After documenting the wild lives of Bill Graham (Rage & Roll, LJ 3/15/94) and River Phoenix (Lost in Hollywood, Donald I. Fine, 1995), Glatt turns to the decidedly tamer story of the Chieftains, a group that brought traditional Irish music back from the brink of extinction in the mid-Sixties and became unlikely pop stars in the 1990s. Otherwise quite entertaining, this relentlessly upbeat "authorized" biography is marred by redundant quotes from the band members and associates, factual inconsistencies, and the lack of a discography. Also, when Glatt is stonewalled by the group's charismatic (if controlling) leader, Paddy Maloney, he sidesteps darker periods of the band's past. Still, this is the first full biography of Ireland's most important band, and with the success of the Riverdance and Lord of the Dance stage shows?whose star, Michael Flatley, once danced regularly with the Chieftains?demand for things Irish may be high.
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